


Come In From The Cold

by setissma



Series: Polaris (Triad Version) [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: HP: EWE, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-13 14:08:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7979497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setissma/pseuds/setissma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What to expect when you're <i>actually</i> expecting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come In From The Cold

“I’m home,” Harry said, opening the door to their suite. “Also, just in case I get any more bloody stupid ideas about Africa, please petrify me and beat me about the head until I’ve come to my senses.”

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Pansy remarked, lying on the couch out of view. Kit jumped over the sofa, suddenly looking alarmed, and Draco paused at his desk, leaning back in his chair.

“There’s no way it’s snowing that hard out there,” he said. “Also, you’re two hours late. And is that _muckweed_?”

“Someone put the coordinates for the portkey back as the boathouse,” Harry said, with a sigh. “Or, more accurately, the far end of the boathouse dock, which is currently covered in ice and snow, and yes, I fell in, and yes, I’m bloody freezing, and don’t bother, Kit, she’s so mad she’s giving the universe the silent treatment. And that’s why I give _ranges_ on when I’ll be back, because I’m _never_ bloody on time.”

“Good lord, Harry, you’re _dripping_ wet,” Pansy said, head popping up over the back of the couch.

“Hello, cherished and beloved husband, we’re so happy to see you, we’ve kept dinner waiting,” Harry said, dryly.

“Oh, please,” Pansy said, sitting up. She waved a hand and Harry was suddenly dry, wearing one of Draco’s jumpers and a pair of clean jeans, and he was pretty sure Pansy had somehow invented a spell to mimic a shower, since he smelled faintly of the lemon soap she liked. “We missed you terribly and you know it.”

“Still not used to that,” Harry said, wryly, leaving Thaxia to Kit and Lethe, who was making a face at the fact that Thaxia had suddenly been _actually_ washed.

“Sorry, Thaxia, spell targets aren’t my strong suit yet,” she said, wrapping her arms around Harry and pulling him into a hug. “Hi, cherished and beloved husband. I’m glad you no longer smell like the bottom of the lake. The squidlet would probably take to that sort of thing.”

“Pansy, you can’t keep calling the baby ‘squidlet,’” Harry said, with a sigh. “You’ll give her some sort of complex.”

“Well, she’s very grabby,” Pansy said. “She learned new tricks in your absence, actually, now she can get Kit. Thaxia, beware, you might be next.”

“Hi, peanut,” Harry said, putting a hand on Pansy’s stomach. “Were you good while I was gone?”

“No,” Pansy said. “You know how she gets when you go on trips.”

“Really, you know how _she_ gets when you go on trips,” Draco said, with a yawn. “Just for the record, this whole second trimester sex drive thing is horrific without you, and you’re stuck with her while I get some sleep.”

“Oh, stuff it,” Pansy said, burying her face against Harry’s shoulder. “He’s just annoyed he can’t keep up.”

“Well, Charlie’s taking the next few trips,” Harry said. “I told him I’d only go if he wanted to argue with you about my not being around enough for the holidays, and he said he’d –“ He paused. “He said he’d be happy to go so I could spend time with my family.”

Pansy snorted. “Oh, he did not, he said he’d rather be eaten by dragons or something, didn’t he.”

“A venomous tentacula, but yes, mostly,” Harry said, laughing. “Don’t be mad, you’re sort of frighteningly powerful these days.”

“Draco says I have to take the back door and that I’m not allowed in the potions wing because the squidlet keeps messing with the underlying architecture and integrity of the longer brewing potions, blah blah blah,” Pansy said. “I think he’s very mean.”

“Oh, no,” Draco said. “I was stuck here for ten days with sulky squidlet, sulky Pansy who wants nothing other than to have sex and eat eight million extraordinarily weird things at two in the morning, sulky daemons, and a double course load right before finals.” He paused. “And, you know, I might have missed you as well.”

“I _am_ carrying your child, you know,” Pansy said. “And standing here.”

“Nope,” Draco said. “There’s no way she’s mine or Harry’s, you were accidentally impregnated by an incubus or the Hogwarts chalice or something.”

“Well, you’re the one standing over there,” Harry said, dryly. “Come over here.”

“Oh, fine,” Draco said, coming to let Harry hug him, pulling Pansy into their circle, and Pansy made a face.

“Damn it, she woke up,” she said. “And she’s noticed you’re back.”

“She’s getting better at that grabby thing,” Harry said, spreading his hands out on Pansy’s stomach again. “Hi, I missed you too.”

“Ugh, she’s all happy,” Pansy said.

Harry snorted. “God forbid our baby be happy to see me,” he remarked.

“Oh, it’s not that, it’s just itchy when she gets excited,” Pansy said, then paused. “Huh. Good squidlet. Show him how you feel yourself. Much better than trying to swipe my magic.”

“You know,” Harry said, looking at his hands, which were starting to glow. “We’re barely over five months. I _really_ don’t remember Rose being this… interesting.”

“I’m sticking with my succubus theory,” Draco said. “Though Lexington thinks it’s because she’s been drawing off three daemons and all three of us.”

“I mean, Rose had three people as well,” Harry pointed out.

“Lexington says it’s different because we’re all her parents,” Draco said, with a yawn. “Something about – permissional transference or – I don’t know, there was a lot of talking about surrogates and that sort of thing, I lost track.”

“He fell asleep half way through my check up,” Pansy said, dryly.

“Yes, because you kept me up until like four AM having sex like _seven times_ ,” Draco said. “And then I had to go deal with Harry’s fourth years, who are complete and utter monsters and ought to be fed to something large with a lot of teeth.”

“Sorry,” Harry said, laughing. “They really are. Um, not to diminish everyone’s awful week and all that, but I’ve been traveling all day and – er, squidlet hasn’t quite mastered warming charms yet.”

“Oh, right,” Draco said, gesturing at him. “Better?”

“Poor Harry,” Pansy murmured. “Go sit. What do you want to eat?”

“Are you sure you’re over the… puking at… certain things stage?” Harry said, dubiously. “Because otherwise I’m just letting you get whatever you can stomach.”

“Aside from pumpkin, yes,” Pansy said. “So as long as you don’t want that for dinner, I think it’s fine.”

“Shepherd’s pie,” Harry said, flopping down on the couch. “And I’m making an exception to my not-drinking-in-solidarity thing and having a glass of wine, because customs is hell, international creature imports is even worse, and I hate portkeys. And the generator went out three days ago, which apparently was somehow entirely my fault, and I’m bloody well ready to kill Franklin. If she weren’t so good with the birds, I’d find some hyenas to feed her to.”

Draco snorted. “You just hate her because she won’t stop hitting on Weasley.”

“It’s a professionalism thing!” Harry said. “Also, who in the bloody hell wears lace bras in the _rain forest_?”

“I might if you were my field camp supervisor,” Pansy teased, then paused. “Huh, that’s an idea.”

“No, you’d put a glamour on a practical one,” Harry said, with a yawn. “Okay, that’s sexist of me, she can wear whatever knickers she wants as long as she stops going on and _on_ and on about having to take cold showers. I _told_ her they were more than welcome to move the bloody shower outside of the anti-magic radius around the camp so they could heat it without the generator and that I couldn’t help because I’ve been too busy doing all these _fucking permits_ , but no one did.”

“So, basically, the usual,” Draco said. 

“I mean, other than the camp flooding like three times, yeah,” Harry said. “Okay, and customs tried to confiscate my snakes and I nearly decked them, but that’s besides the point.”

“It was terrible and I nearly died,” Thaxia said, finally, creeping up behind Pansy to stand on her hind legs. “Can I jump up? And is there any rabbit in there? I had to eat _spam_.”

“I’m sure they’ll figure out something, and yes, Thaxia, I’m pregnant, not dying,” Pansy said, laughing softly. She turned to nuzzle Thaxia’s face once she’d jumped onto her shoulders. “You really don’t have to ask every time.”

“I don’t want to hurt you or squidlet,” Thaxia said, firmly. “D’you think she missed me too?”

“I’m sure,” Pansy said, taking Harry his bowl of shepherd’s pie.

“Her daemon’s starting to get in there,” Lethe said, flopping in front of the fireplace. “It feels a bit different than her, though Pansy says she can’t tell.”

“Oh,” Thaxia said, pleased. “Good job, squidlet and company.” She leaned over Pansy’s shoulder to look down at her stomach. “Hi, squidlet’s daemon. Welcome to the world. Sort of.”

“Seriously, our child is not a _squid_ ,” Harry said.

“Yeah, you’ve been losing this argument for like three months,” Draco said, dryly. “Don’t worry, we’ll pick a real name eventually.”

“All she does is bloody grab at magic and things and daemons with little magical tendril things,” Pansy said. She made a face. “And it’s not like we care, but I thought I’d _know_ from her bloody magic, and instead it’s just a mishmash of _both_ of yours, it’s stupid.”

“Pansy, neither of us actually cares,” Draco pointed out. “She’s our kid. We’ve been over this.”

“Well, yes, but if Harry wants me to stop calling her squidlet, I have to know whose she is,” Pansy said, scowling.

“Oh, please,” Harry said, already most of the way through his bowl. “You want to meet her first anyway.”

“So shut up about the squidlet thing,” Pansy said, flopping down next to him on the couch. Thaxia tentatively crawled down to curl up on her stomach, peering down.

“You know, I don’t think you can see _through_ me,” Pansy said, dryly.

“She couldn’t tell me and Lethe for a while,” Thaxia protested. “Is she happy again?”

“Yes,” Pansy said, and Thaxia suddenly squeaked, putting her nose against Pansy’s shirt.

“That feels like pulling my tail,” she said. “Stop it.”

“Good luck,” Kit said, drowsily. “I’ve been trying all week. See how it feels in the middle of the night.”

“Great, now I’m the _only_ one she’s not harassing,” Lethe said, sounding put out.

“She knows you’re there, she just calms down when you’ve got your head in my lap,” Pansy said. “In my opinion, that means you’re _superior_ to everyone else here.”

“Oh, all right,” Lethe said, with a sigh.

“You’re probably her favorite or something,” Thaxia said, then paused. “Hey, I can feel him too! Squidlet daemon. Sort of.” She frowned. “He’s sort of… blobby.”

“Squidlet is still blobby, you can’t expect too much,” Pansy said. “And you all know he’s not going to be a daemon until she’s born, so you’re really just feeling part of her.”

“Yes, well, we’re responsible for the blobby bit,” Kit said, tail flicking. “What’s it feel like to you, Thaxia?”

“I dunno,” she said. “Purple?”

“ _Hah_ ,” said Lethe.

“Purple isn’t a _feeling_ ,” Kit complained.

“I said purple too,” Lethe said. “Like Pansy’s magic, only different.”

“Yeah, definitely purple,” Thaxia decided. “Squidlet, I missed you. Purple, it’s nice to meet you.”

“You are all disgusting,” Draco informed them, laughing. “Harry’s right here and we missed him and everyone’s busy fawning over the baby whom we’ve all spent all week with.”

“Well, _I_ didn’t,” Thaxia said. “And they might have thought we left, they have to know they have a stable family unit. It’s important. Hermione says so.”

“How’d the check up go?” Harry said. “Aside from Draco sleeping through it. And, er, I’m sort of hoping you recorded the magiogram, Thaxia about died because we had to miss it.”

“Well, no, we couldn’t do one, squidlet mucked up the spell, but the readings all came back perfectly normal,” Pansy said. “I’m going in on Tuesday morning, you can come. Pippa says she’s a brat. I mean, a very healthy brat with good vital statistics and no genetic issues and doing well for her age and all that, but she’s not very cooperative about being poked. Pippa’s hoping if we don’t have to give me an exam first and if she’s in a better mood, she won’t be so uncooperative.” She grinned. “You’re supposed to come along. Ostensibly so she’ll cooperate. I really think my obstetrician’s just in it for the eye candy.”

“God, it’s like you’re inhabited by a poltergeist,” Draco said, with a sigh.

“ _Draco_ ,” Pansy said, looking irritated.

“Sorry, sorry,” Draco said. “You know I love her. And you.”

Harry snorted. “So they’ve really no idea why she’s so… active so early?”

Pansy took his bowl and poured him a glass of wine. “Pippa said that babies know who their non-carrying parents are. It’s not biology, it’s instinct. She says they think it’s got something to do with how their daemons are shaped, but they don’t really know. She said they always do, even if it’s a surrogate carrier or two lesbians or something, because their daemon has to form itself by taking bits of, er, our daemons. And babies interact with their parents on a different level than they’re willing to with other people. So she thinks because of all my stupid magical power and because she’s picking off bits of all three of us _and_ her daemon is forming from three daemons and not just two, she’s feisty. She said they can’t… interact with the world properly until they start developing daemons, so she might settle some once he’s a little less of a blob. Next month, maybe.” Pansy snorted. “She said it was all theoretical and she’d had to owl some specialists, apparently we’re fairly unique.”

“That’s sort of brilliant,” Thaxia said, happily. “It means she’s mine even if she’s not Harry’s?”

“Thaxia, she’s my kid regardless of whose sperm it was,” Harry said, rolling his eyes. 

“Well, yes, I know,” Thaxia said. “But it’s neat, isn’t it?”

“Pippa says that’s why she switched to obstetrics,” Pansy said, laughing. “That the process of growing magical babies is ‘bloody brilliant.’”

“Move over,” Harry said, yawning, and laid his head next to Thaxia. “Quit giving your mother so much trouble, I’m going to be home for a while and all my magic’s right there for the –“ Harry laughed, suddenly. “Taking, thank you.”

“You think that feels weird, see how it is when she’s grabbing things from behind your liver,” Pansy said, dryly.

“Possibly we’ve created a tiny monster who is far too curious for her own good,” Harry said. “But she’ll be perfect, so that’s all right.” He laughed. “It’s odd, isn’t it, she’s not far enough along yet to have a personality or any of that, but it feels like she’s got emotions. Like she knows that I’m her dad and she’s happy to see me.”

“Well, of course she has, Harry,” Lethe said. “Her daemon has started growing, and they’re still all tangled together, but she has a soul now. She’s not just a blob of cells that’s making Pansy puke her guts out every five minutes.”

“But that’s weird, isn’t it?” Harry said. “I mean – baby daemons don’t have much more personality than babies do. I mean, don’t get me wrong, babies are different from one another, but isn’t ‘welcome home’ sort of a complex thing?”

“It’s like –“ Lethe said. “She has everything she needs to be a grown human from you, but she won’t use all of it for a while. Well, she’s got to collect everything she needs to have a grown soul from us, but she won’t need it for a while. But there are bits in here where you’ll see more of it or less of it, just like there are points where her hormones will be at adult levels or some other biological thing. So, yes, her entire daemon’s there. And her soul’s the part you’re getting emotions from.”

“Still totally weird,” Harry said. “But I’ll take it. It’s nice.” He laughed again. “And she’s kicking.”

“It’s sort of cute how happy she gets to see you and Draco,” Pansy said, fondly. “I have to go see him at lunch so she can visit or she won’t sleep through afternoon lessons.”

“Yes,” Draco said, dryly. “That’s exactly what we’ve spent the last week of lunch breaks doing.”

“Oh, shut _up_ ,” Pansy said, mildly. “The hormones are hardly my fault.”

“So all your animals got here all right, Harry?” Draco said, rolling his eyes again. “I’m not going down the path of talking about sex, it leads to her wanting sex, and that’s useless.”

“You know, he likes it well enough when we’re _having_ it,” Pansy pointed out.

“Okay, okay,” Harry said, laughing. “Truce. Let me sleep tonight, get my specimens sorted in their new enclosures in the morning, guide the wayward youth back on track, and then you can have me for anything you want for the evening while Draco introverts in the greenhouses.”

“Mm, anything?” Pansy said, speculatively.

“I might have _considered_ joining you, but that gleam in her eye means you’re probably never going to be able to look Franklin straight in the eye again, so I’ll pass on the condition that your morning shower’s all mine and you two make it back here for snogging before bed,” Draco said.

“I still think I could convince you to like role play,” Pansy said, and Harry snorted.

“Pansy, it’s not his thing, it’s never going to be his thing, and if he ever wants in on it, I’ll probably ruin the whole thing by keeling over from shock and having to be taken to the hospital wing,” he said, mildly. “That’s you and me. Sex before a functional hour in the morning and anything remotely public is you two. Showers for actual sex are me and Draco. And the only one who likes being tied up or blindfolded is you.”

“Your loss,” Pansy said.

Harry snorted. “My point is, it’s been years, I sort of doubt anyone’s going to go dramatically changing their taste in kink, so you figure out what you’d like and I’ll go with it. _Tomorrow_.”

“Oh, all right, at least we’ve got plenty of overlap, though don’t think I haven’t noticed you two trading off,” Pansy said, then stretched, relaxing. “She went back to sleep. Thank god.”

“Your sex drive is a little insane right now, darling,” Draco said, settling in next to Harry and reaching to stroke a hand through his hair. “If we don’t trade off, we can’t keep up.”

“Honestly pretty true,” Harry admitted, laughing. “But we probably ought to set aside some time for all three of us now that I’m not spending half my life on another continent. And thank _god_ , assuming she gets a NEWT, which I haven’t exactly got much doubt of, we can hire Hamilton to take over the second she graduates. I don’t know why I ever thought Hufflepuff was less than the most perfect house. I love Hufflepuffs.”

“Fewer trips?” Pansy said, brightening.

“Er, sort of,” Harry said. “We’ve gotten an invitation to get in on Madagascar. But I’ve got too bloody many papers to write to even think about it, so I won’t be co-director. Probably just get it started next summer and then –“ He paused. “Or, you know, stay here. Permanently. And never leave the Hogwarts grounds.”

“Good call,” Draco said. “Though I want in on that, I’ve got about four advanced students who you could send.”

“There is going to be a _baby_ ,” Pansy said, a little plaintively. “And you two are going to abandon us for some African island?”

“ _Pansy_ ,” Harry said, fondly. “You know family comes before work.”

“She’s just put out because she can’t actually _do_ any work right now,” Draco said.

“I know,” Pansy said, with a sigh. “I’ve finished and sent off every manuscript. What am I supposed to do, start knitting baby clothes? I can’t believe I agreed to do this _twice_. Squidlet, your brother or sister had better be far less of a pain.”

“Romance novels?” Harry suggested, laughing. “Running detention with an iron fist?”

“Oh god,” Draco said. “I think every house is down by a few hundred points.” He paused. “We miss you when we’re gone, and we’re consummate professionals who would never let that influence our teaching.”

“Yes, I certainly was not overly cranky with any of my field students,” he said. “They send their love but are very grateful to have perpetual bachelor Charlie Weasley back in charge.”

“Oh, they do not, half of them want to shag you and hate us for marrying you, and the other half are blind and therefore probably haven’t had either of us for any advanced classes and think we’re boring,” Pansy said, yawning.

“Oh please, most of them came out with NEWTs in at _least_ Creatures and Herbology and Potions, you know I won’t take anyone who can’t keep up,” Harry said. “And Charlie’s even more strict than I am because he hasn’t taught any of them.”

“Charlie ought to be more strict with Franklin,” Pansy said, with a grin.

Harry groaned. “I don’t even think he _notices_ , that’s the worst part. He even tried to institute a no-sex-in-the-field-camp-unless-it’s-with-a-spouse rule.” He paused. “Even he’s not that stupid about you two. But I vetoed that one. They’re only going to want to shag _more_ if it’s forbidden. And, you know, it’s the middle of the jungle, what else are you going to do.”

“What else _are_ you going to do,” Pansy said, eyes narrowing.

“ _Write manuscripts_ ,” Harry said. “Pansy, the day I cheat on you two with Franklin is the day I take my _own_ head off with Nearly Headless Nick’s extraordinarily dull cleaver or whatever it is.”

“No, she’s being jealous of Charlie, he’s gotten to see you more often,” Draco said, dryly. “And Kit’s been all… you know.”

“I have done no such thing,” Kit said, lashing his tail. Thaxia hopped down to start grooming his ears.

“Pansy,” Harry said, patiently. “We have been over this.”

“We really have,” Thaxia agreed.

“Oh, yes, all right, I know, you’d never,” Pansy said, with a huff. “I’m just the size of a small whale and going to become the size of a large whale.”

“Pansy, if you don’t hop off this mental track, I’m so tired that I’m going to respond with, ‘I quite like whales, actually,’ and then you’ll be so mad at me you won’t be able to have sex tomorrow, so stop it,” Harry said. “We’ve been over this. Besides, you’re barely showing at all.”

“Blah blah bringing new life into the world blah blah literally radiant blah,” Pansy said, making a face. “It’s cliché and I don’t believe it for a second.”

“Your hair is better?” Harry hazarded. “It’s gone all especially shiny and such?”

“Oh, all right,” Pansy said. “I suppose I can take that one seriously.”

“You really still are small,” Draco agreed. “It’s only because of all the weird magic and squidlet being so feisty that everyone knows.”

“Well, at least she’s useful for the older kids,” Pansy said, with a sigh. “It’s rather easy to practice casting with magical interference when I can provide all the magical interference you’d ever want. I feel rather badly for the first and second years, though, they’re having to write rather a lot of essays.”

“Oh, they are not,” Draco said, rolling his eyes. “McGonagall steps in all the time, I step in all the time, you’re just mad that you can’t cultivate them like the tiny growing creatures you love to nurture through all seven years and turn into unholy terrors who are going to take over the Ministry and everything else for you.”

“It’s true,” Pansy said. “This whole pregnant during the school term, off during the holidays plan was a terrible idea. I miss my minions.”

“Pansy, we do not refer to the second years as minions,” Harry said, mildly. “That’s only squidlet and future squidlet.” He made a face. “Damn it. Now I’m doing it.”

“Someday they’ll be second years and your logic will be refutable,” Pansy said. “Oh no.”

“She’s _not even born yet_ ,” Draco said. “If you cry one more time over anything leaving the nest in approximately eighteen or nineteen years, I’m flinging myself out the tower window. I’m serious.”

“It’s not that long,” Pansy said. “Besides, what if they don’t like us and want to move to South America or something?”

“She’s got Harry genes or Harry magic bits or Harry nurturing,” Draco said. “You know how he is about family.”

“Oh, all right,” Pansy said, with a sigh. “That’s true.”

“Should I be glad I’ve been missing this debate?” Harry said, eyes closing.

“Pansy has emotions brought about by hormones that are completely normal for her stage in pregnancy and therefore cannot be held against her,” Draco said, glancing at her. “Did I do that sentence right or do I have to practice again?”

“More or less,” Pansy said. “You forgot the _at any point now or in the future_ bit, though.”

“She’s worried the baby will hate us or something,” Draco said. “I’m arguing that this is unlikely based on your giant, sprawling, weird family thing. That you’ll inevitably infect her with.”

“Um, I hate to break it to you, but it’s now _your_ giant, sprawling, weird family thing as well,” Harry said, laughing. “But I’m not too concerned the baby will hate us until she’s a teenager, at which point, we’re doomed, but that’s normal.”

“True, she’ll come back around,” Pansy mused. “Plus she’ll never be able to date anyone with us as parents.”

“Hm,” Draco said. “That may be the first compelling argument for not sending her to another wizarding school that you’ve made.”

“Okay, so I’m just going to hazard that we’ve got, like, a minimum of thirteen or fourteen years to worry about that one, and point out that I’m on the verge of falling asleep,” Harry said, with a yawn. “Can we discuss the peanut’s love life some other time?”

“It’s hardly her love life I’m worried about, it’s teenage boys,” Pansy said. “Well, I suppose I ought to be equal opportunity, but teenage girls are at least a _bit_ more sensible.”

“Go back to worrying about the drama of your sixth year minions,” Harry said, with another yawn. “I mean students. I’m following squidlet’s lead, she’s got the right idea.”

“Oh, all right,” Pansy said. “I suppose we should come read in there lest she wake up and not know your exact location and get all weird again.”

“I’ll sleep on you, don’t worry,” Thaxia said, then paused. “Er, I’ll sleep with Lethe and Kit, but close enough that she can feel me? Have we calculated Purple’s range yet?”

“No,” Lethe said, laughing. “But I’m nearly certain it’s more than the _bed_. He’ll know you’re there.”

“Good,” Thaxia said. “He has to catch up on getting bits of me, he’s probably overbalanced with laid back Slytherin daemon and all off kilter right now. Poor Squidlet.”

“Poor Purple,” Kit agreed, laughing. “You’d hardly know how Pansy and Draco live their lives, really.”

“I do wonder sometimes,” Thaxia mused.

“Well, we were utterly incomplete until you came along,” Pansy said, standing up and bending down to scoop her up.

“I know, I feel badly I didn’t intervene sooner,” Thaxia said. “Am I too heavy for you to carry?”

“Only four more months,” Draco said, with a sigh.

Harry snorted, standing up to drop a kiss on the back of his neck. “I missed you,” he said. “Come read with Pansy?”

“Come pass out with you,” Draco said, laughing. “I missed you too.”

“And maybe even Thaxia,” Lethe agreed.

“Probably even Thaxia,” Kit said. “Come along, family, before Pansy steals all the good blankets.”

“Point,” Draco said. “Get in there and sprawl, Harry. I’ve got to seal everything up here, be along in a minute. But that’s more than enough time to lose the entire bed.”

Harry laughed. “Going,” he said, fondly. “I’m really glad to be home.”


End file.
